The title of the article posted by pcll99 dated 17th Dec'13 says, Li Yongbo:Wish Before Retirement to Nurture 100 World Champions, Should Play Down Gold Medals(Below is my humble translation of what Li Yongbo said)

Li Yongbo thinks it is unnecessary to use a lot of authority to manage sportspersons. "The way a sports body manages their celebrities/sport stars is a stringent management system, more may be dependent upon the feelings and emotions accumulated over a long period, followed by lots of social responsibilities, even entailing semi-regimented,compulsory demands. Take for example, Lin Dan pursuing his own dream but not doing anything that is harmful to his badminton career as a precondition, I am definitely supportive of it."

Regarding the environment and conditions of survival for Chinese badminton players, Li Yongbo explained:"Presently, China's sports commercialization is just a mark on white paper, still a long way to go, there is much to do in the future. Personally, I think the athletes' advertising income is far beneath their efforts and sacrifices.Compared to foreign athletes, we get much less. I never think athletes doing more advertisements and taking more advertising money is wrong, I think it is very right, I hope they earn tens of millions a year; only then will I be happy.Sports are facing a lot of reforms, including some policy changes; although it may take a long time, there should be changes."

"Excellent athletes and ordinary ones should be treated differently, right now there is almost no difference, esp. in their benefits. For many excellent athletes, taking an advertisement assignment, 50% earned goes to the country;as for overseas tournament prize money, 50% goes to the association;this is standard practice for everyone. Winning honours and having the national anthem played for the nation, these outstanding athletes, we can accord them some special treatment.May we not consider that after their stepping onto the winners' podium or retirement, let them keep all their advertisement money. In some sports, a national champion's salary is not even as good as a waiter in a restaurant."

In Li Yongbo's view, sport is undergoing changes, future development should lead to a lessening of the preeminence of gold medals. " Play down international championship standing/ranking,instead turn towards emphasizing national fitness, only when the health of the masses is good that sport does truly play a guiding role, and not to put all the spotlight on the winners' podium. Once defeated,ended up in second place, and the player gets berated for it."

"The heart of an athlete is sharpened and polished step by step. No matter which sport, from the moment you stepped into it until the day you achieved success, every day is a failure; possibly the next day you wake up in the morning, you still have to wear a smile to greet yet another defeat."

Lastly, Li Yongbo talked about his dream:"After becoming a coach, my dream is to nurture 100 world champions. Now is 74, still short of 26. This is the dream of my life. I use 20 years to accomplish the preceding 74, there is still nine years left before my retirement, I feel hopeful."

26 more world champion players in 9 years, not 26 more world champion golds. That's mean he needs 3 new world champion players every year. That's not easy, especially in WS and WD when LXR, WYH, Yu/Wang... are young and still playing. To achieve his goal, maybe he needs set a rule, once a player win the world champion, he/she needs to retire right away, let other players win.

I think LYB meant by world champions the major titles won irrespective of the number of times. So, for Lin Dan he is world champion 18 times over. The majors as we know refer to the World Championship, the Olympic Gold, the Thomas and Uber Cups, and the Sudirman Cup.

It used to be that the World Cup was included but no longer since the event was discontinued or replaced by the world championship. Not sure if the Asian Games is counted as a major by CBA, more likely yes. That's how I understood him.

Interesting and glad to know that for CHN players (for all their professional sports actually, except the fully independent players such as Li Na in tennis, I think), 50% of their advertising/endorsement incomes are kept by the players with the state taking the rest, and also 50% of the tournament prize money with the balance going to the association.

Also happy to know that Li Yongbo is actually for the players to keep 100% of their advertising/endorsement incomes either during their active years or after retirement or both. Hope he succeeds in fighting for it.

Interesting and glad to know that for CHN players (for all their professional sports actually, except the fully independent players such as Li Na in tennis, I think), 50% of their advertising/endorsement incomes are kept by the players with the state taking the rest, and also 50% of the tournament prize money with the balance going to the association.

Also happy to know that Li Yongbo is actually for the players to keep 100% of their advertising/endorsement incomes either during their active years or after retirement or both. Hope he succeeds in fighting for it.

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Agree! This should be a standard practice, not only in China, but indeed in any edge of the world. Percentage of players' endorsement/advertising which goes to the association should be negatively correlated with the players' achievement. Such a regressive structure would be a nice incentive for athlete.

I think LYB meant by world champions the major titles won irrespective of the number of times. So, for Lin Dan he is world champion 18 times over. The majors as we know refer to the World Championship, the Olympic Gold, the Thomas and Uber Cups, and the Sudirman Cup.

It used to be that the World Cup was included but no longer since the event was discontinued or replaced by the world championship. Not sure if the Asian Games is counted as a major by CBA, more likely yes. That's how I understood him.

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Well, unless the reporter used the wrong word. "位" normally refers to person, not champion trophy.

Interesting and glad to know that for CHN players (for all their professional sports actually, except the fully independent players such as Li Na in tennis, I think), 50% of their advertising/endorsement incomes are kept by the players with the state taking the rest, and also 50% of the tournament prize money with the balance going to the association.

Also happy to know that Li Yongbo is actually for the players to keep 100% of their advertising/endorsement incomes either during their active years or after retirement or both. Hope he succeeds in fighting for it.

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keep 100%. How does his tax work for this? Anybody in the UK earning over 150k a year has to give at least 50% to the "state". He gets looked after on tour fed/accommodation, flights etc free all as added perks. 50% sounds like a great deal to me.

Well, unless the reporter used the wrong word. "位" normally refers to person, not champion trophy.

"现在是74位，还差26位"

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But 位 also means position (say, title) besides person and other meanings (eg place,seat,location). Anyway, you could be right except that to produce 100 different world champions would most probably require more than a normal person's lifetime to do so; that's why I assume from the context that he meant world championships (titles, the major ones) when he used the term world champions [FONT=&amp]世界冠军[/FONT]. Perhaps, the reporter himself wasn't too clear either as he didn't elaborate nor ask Li Yongbo for clarification.

OTOH, if we count the number of major titles won, we might be able to arrive at 74. Just think, right now, Lin Dan already has 18; Li Xuerui, 3, including the Olympic gold, Sudirman Cup, and Uber Cup; Wang Yihan,3, including WC, Sudirman and Uber Cups; and so on.... when we add up all the major titles won since 1993 (not sure if, in team events, the MS2 and MS3, WS2 and WS3, MD2, and WD2, are considered as well).

Come to think of it, maybe all the team members in a major championship are counted or maybe not as that would seem to be too many. Whatever, to tally all of it, some research would be necessary to see if the figure adds up. Of course, Li Yongbo is the best person to answer this question.

keep 100%. How does his tax work for this? Anybody in the UK earning over 150k a year has to give at least 50% to the "state". He gets looked after on tour fed/accommodation, flights etc free all as added perks. 50% sounds like a great deal to me.

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First, LYB's suggestion or proposal refers only to the advertising income not the prize money which still has to be shared 50% with the association.

Second, I too feel keeping 50% of the advertising money is substantial already but considering most if not all fully independent professional athletes get to pocket 100% of it, it may not be too far-fetched or unreasonable an expectation. As for the taxation part, the athlete is subject to China's income tax law which is rather progressive -- http://www.worldwide-tax.com/china/china_tax.asp .

Third, maybe LYB is thinking that instead of letting the state, not CBA (which shares 50% of the prize money only), take 50% of the advertising income, why not let the athlete have more, up to 100%, to incentivize them and raise the attraction and stature of the sport as a profession, esp when he considers badminton players are not as well rewarded as , say, their table tennis counterparts in proportion to the physical demands and risk of injury.

Besides, CBA is known to be adequately if not well funded by the Chinese government as Chinese badminton is already doing so well on the world stage (as only any sport that is doing poorly get reduced funding) and the prize money the association is collecting from the players' winnings on a regular basis, 50% of it, is a welcome bonus, even possibly a reliable and good source of revenue for CBA in actuality, I'd say.

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